Hydraulic and Hydrologic Engineering

Hydraulic and Hydrologic engineers work to prevent floods, to supply water for cities, industry and irrigation, to treat wastewater, to protect beaches, and to manage and redirect rivers. In the hydraulics and hydrology profession you will be using scientific study of the properties, distribution, and circulation of water on the surface of the land, in the soil and underlying rocks, and in the atmosphere.

In Civil Engineering's Hydraulic and Hydrologic Engineering specialty group, also sometimes termed Water Resources Engineering, you will deal with problems and issues involving the flow and storage of water. Specific applications have traditionally arisen in urban drainage, measures for mitigating the effects of floods and droughts, water supply, water treatment, and coastal protection. More recently, the flow implications for water quality have become of greater concern, and the transport of sediment, nutrients, and pollutants in natural or engineered
watercourses has received greater attention. The Hydraulic and Hydrologic Faculty members are particularly interested in applying the latest software and hardware technologies to investigate, understand, and model fundamental flow and transport processes with the widest range of applications. Research opportunities may be found in projects dealing with turbulent flows, watershed hydrology, environmental hydraulics, and contaminant transport. The Hydromechanics and Burke Research Laboratories give undergraduate and graduate students hands-on learning opportunities to expand their experience here at Purdue.

Spotlights

Richa Ojha, Meenu Ramadas and Rao S. Govindaraju (Bowen Engineering Head and Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professor of Civil Engineering) were the 2016 recipients of the ASCE State-of-the-Art of Civil Engineering Award. The annual award is for scholarly review, evaluation, and documentation of the scientific and technical information needed by the profession.

The Purdue Lyles School of Civil Engineering is committed to providing our students, faculty, and staff with the best tools available to aid them in their research and study. One of the latest additions to our school is the tilting flume, located in the Christopher and Susan Burke Hydraulics and Hydrologic Lab in Hampton Hall.

Our oceanographic buoy near Michigan City in Lake Michigan was interviewed by the Big Ten Network! Yes, that's right... the buoy itself was interviewed! Those interested in meeting our now-famous buoy only have to wait a few more weeks before it returns to Purdue Civil Engineering to rest for the winter.

First built in the 1960s, the tow tank in the basement of Hampton Hall will be renovated by the end of 2016. According to Cary Troy, associate professor of civil engineering, the facility, owned by civil engineering's hydraulic and hydrologic engineering department, was built along with the building itself. It is designed to tow objects through a tank of water using a carriage at the top, which would allow researchers to measure, for example, the drag force from the fluid to the object.

Civil Engineering Master's student Jessica Holberg (advised by Dr. Venkatesh Merwade) was named a recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Fellowship for the 2015 award year. This award provides a yearly stipend and the cost of tuition for a period of three years.

Assistant Professor Cary Troy has been named the recipient of Purdue's new Exceptional Early Career Award. The award was created by the Office of the Provost and the Murphy Award selection committee to recognize outstanding undergraduate teaching among Purdue's early career, tenure-track faculty.

Researchers from Purdue University are spending a week aboard a scientific vessel in Lake Michigan, tracking a fluorescent plume of dyed water to study how currents transport contaminants and aquatic life.

Boaters and beach-goers visiting the Indiana shoreline of Lake Michigan now can learn current conditions such as water temperature, wind speeds and other information provided by a new environmental sensing buoy.

Dr. A. Ramachandra Rao, Professor Emeritus of Hydraulic and Hydrologic Engineering, received the Ven Te Chow Award from the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Prof. Cary Troy and a team of researchers are using a robotic submarine and other specialized tools in Lake Michigan to gather biological and environmental data showing how young fish vital to the ecosystem may cope with future climate change.